Multimedia is media and content that utilizes one or more content forms. For example, multimedia can include text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactivity content forms. Multimedia can be transmitted over a network, such as an Internet, and be used to communicate. For example, digital photos can be posted as a photo album online for viewing by any member of the public. In another example, a user can utilize a digital photo as an online avatar (or representative icon) in user transactions online.
Digital images can be obtained in a variety of ways, including from a digital camera, a scanner scanning a physical paper, or via various graphical applications for creating digital imagery. Such digital images can be stored in a variety of standard Raster file formats, including JPEG, BMP, TIFF, RAW, PNG, and GIF. Alternatively, digital images can be stored in vector formats, such as CGM and SVG.
Media including digital images can be manipulated via various operators, which create or enhance media characteristics. Example operators for images include transforming, clustering, diffusion, filtering, and thresholding. For example, filtering can removing undesired characteristics within an image, such as a specific color or brightness.
Multiple operators can be combined to form effects that alter a digital image in a predetermined manner. For example, an effect for converting a color image to a black-and-white image for transmission over the Internet can crop the image to a manageable size, remove noise from the image, and convert brightness of image pixels into a grayscale pixel. The effect thus provides a black-and-white image ready for distribution over the Internet.
A graphical user interface (GUI) is a type of user interface which allows people to interact with electronic devices such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment. A GUI offers graphical icons, and visual indicators, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation to fully represent the information and actions available to a user. The actions are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements via devices such as pointer devices.
Thus, there is a need to provide an improved user interface allowing designers to easily design effects from pre-existing operators, and to provide the effects to users over a network from a server.